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Dr. Tia Gaynor Awarded DOJ Grant

Research seeks to improve relations between police and LGBT people of color in New Orleans

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. (Feb. 9, 2017) – The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs recently awarded Dr. Tia Sherèe Gaynor, Assistant Professor of Public Administration, funding under the W.E.B. DuBois Program of Research on Race and Crime in the amount of $150,000.

This funding supports the project entitled "Intersectional Subjection and Law Enforcement: Examining Perceptions Held by LGBTQ People of Color in New Orleans, La." The project seeks to empirically evaluate how policing has been used to subjugate individuals with intersecting identities in New Orleans.

Under the W.E.B. DuBois Program of Research on Race and Crime, Dr. Gaynor, along with Dr. Brandi Blessett of Rutgers University-Camden, will examine the perceptions people of color who identify as LGBTQ have of law enforcement in order to understand how interactions with the New Orleans Police Department can be marginalizing.

The ultimate goal of this project is to help bridge the gap between LGBTQ persons of color and law enforcement. In this regard, findings have the potential to reduce some of the discord that currently exists between the two communities.